Possible Tornado In Middlebury, Vermont; Other Storm Damage In State

This house in Middlebury, Vermont was severely damaged
by a possible tornado Friday. Photo via Twitter from
Tyler Jankowski/WPTZ-TV News.

UPDATE

The National Weather Service in South Burlington had determined the storm in Middlebury was indeed a tornado.

The EF-1 tornado had top winds of 110 mph, traveled for one mile and was 75 yards wide.

I'll have more on this in tomorrow morning's post

PREVIOUS DISCUSSION

A tornado might have touched down in Middlebury, Vermont today.  Whether it was a tornado or not, there's reports of quite a lot of damage. 

The most extensive damage in Middlebury was around Painter Road.  

Photos from television station WPTZ show a collapsed garage with a car trapped beneath it, turned over on its side. The adjacent house had a wall torn off along with roof, window and siding damage. 

 Fire officials told WPTZ the house is uninhabitable. 

There are reports of at least two non-life-threatening injuries from this storm. Other houses in the neighborhood appeared in photos to have minor damage. Numerous trees and wires are down. 

Wood, insulation and other material from that most seriously damaged house were scattered hundreds of feet away.  Numerous trees were sheared off and some trees fell in opposing directions, which would suggest a tornado.  

Radar images of the Middlebury storm showed what appeared to be a tornado debris signature, a very good sign that this was, in fact a twister. 

However, we don't know for sure yet. As of late afternoon, I don't yet know whether the National Weather Service in South Burlington will head to Middlebury to investigate. If they go, NWS meteorologists will look at the damage patterns to help determine whether this was a tornado or straight line winds. 

According to the Tornado Project, if confirmed, this would only be the second March tornado on record. A twister caused damage in Bennington County on March 22, 1955. 

Elsewhere in Vermont, storms also caused damage, especially in central Vermont. Numerous trees and wires were down in Montpelier, East Montpelier, Plainfield, Waitsfield and other towns.  I'm guessing most of the damage was from straight line winds. I didn't happen to see any clear radar images of the storms. (I was busy at work).

However, a time lapse video of the storm taken by Charlie Hohn does show some rotation in the storm clouds over Montpelier. 

The severe storm threat in Vermont is over. Temperatures will be crashing down from the unseasonable warmth down to something close to average overnight. It'll get into the 30s, with maybe a dusting of snow in the mountains 

The next storm, Sunday and Sunday night, will not cause any severe thunderstorms or tornadoes in Vermont. That storm will probably case such severe weather in the South, but not here.

Instead, we'll just get rain, ending as a little snow, especially in the mountains, Sunday night.